"You haven't lost control of these organizations, have you?" Little Swift looked at the directors, all wearing masks of pain, and became pained himself.
"Give us some time, and we'll solve the problem!" These directors knew they had to take responsibility for their own messes. And if the lawsuit wasn't resolved, the pipeline and railroad couldn't start construction, which would be the most fatal blow.
"Alright, I'll assume you've all solved this problem, and then we can discuss other matters!" Little Swift said indifferently, making the directors' faces turn even more grim.
"If the environmental organization issue is resolved, aren't there no other issues to discuss?" the directors asked, bewildered.
"Of course, it's about the funding for pipeline construction!" Little Swift said. "Actually, I haven't been idle these past one or two years. Although actual construction couldn't begin, planning various preliminary pipeline routes and calculating costs were still possible!"
"And all this work was completed not long ago. This is the finalized pipeline route plan. Directors, you can take a look and offer suggestions." As soon as Little Swift finished speaking, everyone immediately sensed something amiss in his words.
What did it mean that the pipeline route plan was already finalized? What did it mean that suggestions could be offered?
Did that mean they could only offer suggestions, and the right to modify them was firmly in the hands of Little Swift, or the boss behind him, Huang He?
While pondering this question, their colleagues looked at the pipeline and railroad plan finally released by Little Swift, and the more they looked, the more their hearts pounded.
In the original plan, this pipeline was to connect the westernmost region of the United States to the easternmost region, with a total length of about 4,000 kilometers.
However, the pipeline route in Little Swift's plan had reached an astonishing 6,800 kilometers, nearly 3,000 kilometers longer than the originally projected length.
But the advantage of this was that it connected most of the economically developed regions of the United States. The original route plan only passed through 18 states, one-third of the total.
However, after the modification, it passed through 36 states, directly doubling the number of cities.
There were benefits to such a modification, which was that the operational routes of this pipeline and railroad would increase several times over, and the future revenue from the pipeline would also increase several times. This was the greatest benefit of this new route.
But there were also many problems that followed, the most pressing of which was the issue of construction costs. The additional 2,800 kilometers directly increased the total construction cost by nearly double.
At the same time, the original route had been completely changed, with a overlap rate of less than one-fourth of the previous one. This meant that a large amount of land previously acquired for railway construction had now lost its utility.
And the most fatal point was that the land rights for this new planned route were not in the hands of the major institutions, so they couldn't make money from it.
"I think this route is somewhat inappropriate and has many problems!" a director immediately stated.
"Indeed, Mr. Little Swift, your route has not been approved by any of us. We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to this, and we will not agree to this route plan!" several directors said unceremoniously.
It was a joke. With this route change, a large amount of income would naturally come their way. How could they let go of such an opportunity to make money while lying down?
"What? Do you all want to argue over a route for five years like in previous years, only to finally determine one-third of the route plan? Do you still want to see this pipeline start construction immediately?" Little Swift's rhetorical question silenced them, and then he added in an unquestionable tone, "I just said, this route is set. You only have the right to make suggestions, and don't say another word."
"If you truly have opinions, then find a way to pool more than 45% of the equity. As long as your shares are more than mine, I will obediently listen to you!" Little Swift's words were a killer blow, making everyone angry and ashamed, but also helpless.
After all, in the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, Little Swift was truly the sole dominant figure. Gathering more than 45% of the shares was simply an impossible task.
"Everyone, what you all desire is fairness. Then I can assure you here that I will now present the fairest method ever to meet everyone's needs for profit!" Little Swift said calmly, and this sentence successfully attracted everyone's curiosity.
What would be the fairest method ever?
"Actually, our company has another difficulty, which is that it is very hard to continue to collect pipeline construction funds through issuing more shares. You all played too hard before, raising a total of 60,000 billion US dollars, and it all ended up in your own pockets. This has made the entire nation's citizens extremely sensitive to the word 'issuance'."
"If the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company continues to use the method of issuing more shares to raise funds, I guarantee that the next moment will be the collapse of the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company's stock price, because no one will trust us and will instead think that we are planning to make money through this method again!"
"In fact, the company is still burdened with thousands of financial lawsuits, all accusing our company of financial fraud. These charges naturally have nothing to do with me who took over later, but will fall squarely on all of you!"
"..." There was a silence in the venue again, and many people were trembling. This meant that the original headquarters of the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company had been destroyed, and most of the evidence should have vanished.
But Little Swift had controlled the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company for such a long time. Perhaps he had found some evidence from some hidden corner.
This evidence would naturally not make the big figures behind the consortium responsible. In the end, it would only fall on unfortunate directors like themselves.
Little Swift immediately put a lock around the necks of all the directors, causing their voices to drop several decibels.
However, some bold directors asked in confusion, "Mr. Chairman, if we don't issue more shares, where will we get trillions of dollars in construction funds?"
"Before, our calculations indicated that the entire pipeline and railroad would cost at least 50,000 billion US dollars to complete. Now you have doubled the workload of the entire project, so wouldn't it require 100,000 billion US dollars to complete this pipeline? If we don't issue more shares, where will we get the money?" this director asked his doubts.
"What's there to ask?" Little Swift couldn't help but laugh. "Since we can't raise funds through the stock market by issuing more shares, we can only look for institutions to invest. And now, in this room, we have gathered almost all the most powerful financial institutions in the country. If you all subscribe separately and cough up the money, wouldn't the construction costs for the pipeline be covered?"
"Crash! The scene was immediately in chaos, and everyone looked at Little Swift in shock. They never expected this guy to be so audacious, expecting them to pay for the construction of the pipeline and railroad. Did he have beans growing in his head?"
"Mr. Little Swift, I don't know what leverage you have to threaten us. But even if we all obediently listen to you, don't you think that with just a few words from us, you can make our capital behind us pay these 100,000 billion US dollars in construction funds!"
"Well, that's not impossible!" Little Swift's words caused another suffocating silence, and then he said with a smile, "Alright, it's not as terrifying as you imagine. Building such a pipeline doesn't require 100,000 billion US dollars. This isn't building a railroad to heaven!"
"Actually, according to our calculations, 10,000 billion US dollars is enough to build this pipeline and railroad!" Little Swift's words once again plunged the scene into silence. The interval between the two silences was less than two minutes, which was truly astonishing.
10,000 billion US dollars could build this vacuum super high-speed magnetic levitation railway, which had a total length of 6800 kilometers?
Everyone generally considered this to be nonsense. Some directors had already started to imagine a series of strategies by Little Swift.
That is, first deceive them into investing with an extremely low construction price, and then continuously announce budget overruns, requiring everyone to continuously add more money. And because everyone had already paid, they couldn't refuse such demands and could only keep pouring money in until the construction cost reached 100,000 billion US dollars.
Seeing the directors' expressions, Little Swift didn't find it strange. After all, when he received this budget report from Boss Huang and saw the final cost displayed, he was also directly startled. This price was too low.
"Alright everyone, I know you don't believe it, so I'll explain to you on the spot how this 10,000 billion US dollar construction cost was derived!" Little Swift said calmly, and the screen behind him began to project the PPT slides related to the cost.
Everyone immediately perked up their ears, wanting to see how this guy intended to fool them.
"As everyone knows, there are two main construction costs for building a vacuum super high-speed magnetic levitation pipeline: one is the cost of the pipeline itself, and the other is the cost of the land for the pipeline."
"The 60,000 billion funds previously raised by the company were basically used to purchase land. This valuable land cannot be wasted in our hands, so I intend to continue using this land as our new pipeline construction land!"
"Is this guy stupid?" This was the first reaction of everyone. Didn't it say that the land currently acquired was only one-third of the original planned route?
And now the entire original route had been completely re-planned. He still intended to use this land, so how would he use it?
Did he plan to dig out the soil from these lands and then fill it into another route?